Getting the Score

In some ways, a composer is like an actor.
To do his best work, the composer needs to understand the story, the structure, the characters and their motivations, and that’s how I prefer to talk to a director as well - like an actor.
However, unlike an actor, a composer can’t do multiple takes so easily.
“OK, now [...]

The copyist creates the final, written music to use during the recording session.
Traditionally, the composer or orchestrator would present the copyist with a music score written in pencil. From this written score the copyist would create a clean, computer-engraved copy using software such as Finale or Sibelius.
The copyist is responsible for creating a computer generated [...]

The conductor is the guy who waves his baton in front of the orchestra to get them all to play together and with the right musical effect.
Some composers conduct their own music, but many prefer to sit in the booth where they can focus all their attention on listening to the music as it is [...]

An orchestrator is called upon to take the musical notes written by the composer and assign them to available instruments, adding some notes here and there to provide the musical effect imagined by the composer.
But in film, the orchestrator’s job is much more varied than that, sometimes taking on the role of composer. Here [...]

The music editor is part of the composer’s support team. The music editor will prepare notes taken during the spotting session. Based on the decisions made during the spotting session, he/she will provide detailed timing notes for each cue.
The music editor might be called on to make changes, or edit the music when last minute [...]